Sunday, 17 November 2013

Ultimate Fashion Fix: Designing and creating the Fairy Queen

Designing for the….

Sprite Symphony.

By Davy and Kristin McGuire

PACCAR Room, Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon

16 November 2013 – 2 March 2014

Sprite Symphonytakes you on a journey around the theatre into a world of magical fairies and sprites. Follow the trail to find enchanting fairies trapped in jam jars and the Queen of the Fairies' haunted dress. Discover a cabinet of curious sprites in the foyer and listen to their enchanting music.

Created by award winning artists Davy and Kristin McGuire, Sprite Symphony combines animation and projections with costumes and props made by the Royal Shakespeare Company, recomposed to invent a brand new contemporary fairy tale.

The Fairy Queen is inspired by NcQueen Savage beauty. This isn't a friendly nymph with tutu and wings. Tatjana is a badass fairy who can't be caught by any huntsman. Check out the photos below for the progress of the creation of the dress.

Alice bands created a protruding rib cage, to which I hen added a snarly sternum made from assorted gems and stones and sprayed white.

Everything on the dress needed to be white for the projections to be effective. Tatjana would come to life through animation and projection covering here entire being.

Next came making a skirt of flowers, sewn individually by hand, Ros, Cori and I worked long into the night until Tatjana got impatient…

The final job was the knock back the colour and create a ghostly weathered figure. Here she is scaring people in the carpark (also looking a bit drunk)

The flowers refused to go completely white. But we rather preferred the effect like this.

They looked almost porcelain.

Tatjana takes position on her plinth and the projections start to take shape.

Visit her if you dare at the Paccar Room at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre for the next 4 months.